Background

City, University of London is a global university committed to academic excellence with a focus on business and the professions and an enviable central London location.

City attracts around 19,500 students (35% at postgraduate level) from more than 150 countries and staff from over 75 countries.

In the last REF, City doubled the proportion of its total academic staff producing world-leading or internationally excellent research.

Led by President, Professor Sir Paul Curran, City has made signiﬁcant investments in its academic staff, its estate and its infrastructure and continues to work towards realising its vision of being a leading global university: it has recently agreed a new Vision & Strategy 2026.

The Centre for Food Policy has been based at City, University of London, since 2002. Its mission is to advance an integrated and inclusive approach to food policy through education, research and engagement with the world of food policy. The Centre is interdisciplinary and located in the Department of Sociology, School of Arts and Social Sciences, at City, University of London.

The Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London, is looking for a dynamic Post-doctoral Research Fellow passionate about public policies to improve diets locally, nationally and globally. This new position is full-time, Permanent with funding for 3 years. Working directly with the Director, Centre for food policy, the post holder will be responsible for establishing and leading new, interdisciplinary projects at the cutting-edge of research and scholarship on public policy solutions for healthy diets. The post will involve the development of innovative research ideas and translating them into projects, developing collaborations with other disciplines and stakeholders outside of academia, conducting research on collaborative projects led by others in the UK and internationally, grant writing and fundraising, and the preparation of academic articles, including those emerging from doctoral studies. The post holder would have the opportunity to take forward their own research ideas within the broader framework set by Director, Centre for food policy which is centred around four inter-related areas identified by the Centre as critical to shift the entire system towards healthier diets for all: (a) User/people-centred design of policies and actions to enable equitable improvements in diets; (b) Macroeconomic policy and business models for healthy diets; (c) Policy coherence for healthy diets; (d) Testing our policy solutions in cities. We are looking for candidates with the motivation, ambition, aptitude and experience to take on this exciting new role.

Responsibilities

The main responsibility of the post-holder would be to conduct research on the development and design of public policies that will effectively and equitably improve diets locally, nationally and globally. Working with the Director, Centre for food policy, the post holder will be responsible for establishing and leading new, interdisciplinary projects at the cutting-edge of research and scholarship on public policy solutions for healthy diets.

Specific responsibilities will be: Development of innovative research ideas and translation into funded projects; developing collaborations with other disciplines, and with stakeholders outside of academia; conducting research on collaborative projects led by others in the UK and internationally; grant writing and fundraising and the preparation of academic articles.

Person Specification

We are looking for a candidate with a PhD in any relevant discipline on a topic relevant to public policies for healthy diets. They must have expertise in at least one of the four identified areas (a-d) and desire to pursue research interests in that/those areas, plus interest in the other areas. Other requirements include proven experience of coordination and management of a project or programme; aptitude and/or experience of grant writing/fundraising; demonstrated commitment to pursuing the vision and mission of the Centre for Food Policy; effective organisational skills and excellent writing skills.

Additional Information

City offers a sector-leading salary, pension scheme and benefits including a comprehensive package of staff training and development.